Praxiteles, (flourished 370–330 bce), greatest of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BCE and one of the most original of Greek artists. By trasforming the detached and majestic style of his immediate predecessors into one of gentle grace and sensuous charm, he profoundly influenced the subsequent course of Greek sculpture.Nothing is known of his life except that he apparently was the son of the sculptor Cephisodotus the Elder and had two sons, also sculptors.
The only known surviving work from Praxiteles’ own hand, the marble statue Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus, is characterized by a delicate modelling of forms and exquisite surface finish. A few of his other works, described by ancient writers, survive in Roman copies.
Hermes was popular among the gods because he was playful, innocent and helpful. Hermes helped his father, Zeus, when Dionysus was born. Dionysus was the son of Semele and Zeus, and once Dionysus was born Zeus gave him to Hermes to protect the baby form Hera, Zeus’ wife, who was jealous. Hermes put the baby Dionysus in the care of Io, Semele’s sister.
The most-celebrated work of Praxiteles was the Aphrodite of Cnidus, which the Roman author Pliny the Elder considered not only the finest statue by Praxiteles but the best in the whole world. The goddess is shown naked, a bold innovation at the time. From reproductions of this statue on Roman coins numerous copies have been recognized; the best known are in the Vatican Museum and in the Louvre. Another work that has been recognized in various Roman copies is the ApolloSauroctonus, in which the god is shown as a boy leaning against a tree trunk, about to kill a lizard with an arrow.
To visualize the sculptures of Praxiteles it is well to remember how much colour added to the general effect. An ancient writer, Diodorus, says of him that “he informed his marble figures with the Passion of the soul.” It is this subtle personal element, combined with an exquisite finish of surface, that imparts to his figures their singular appeal. Through his influence, figures standing in graceful, sinuous poses, leaning lightly on some support, became favourite representations and were later further developed by sculptors of the Hellenistic Age.

Read and answer to the questions after you have talked (in English) with your school friends about the topic of every question.

During the 400’s B.C., Athens reached its height of power and prosperity and was the centre of culture in the Greek world. Pericles was the leading Athenian statesman from 461 to 429 B.C. His career spanned most of the Golden Age, a period that began in 450 B.C. and that became famous for its remarkable literary and artistic accomplishments. During the Golden Age, the leading Greek architects and sculptors built the Parthenon on the Acropolis.
The Golden Age ended with the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 B.C. This ruinous war between Athens and Sparta lasted until 404 B.C. and left Athens exhausted. In 430 B.C., a severe plague struck Athens. It killed about a third of the people, including Pericles. Athens lacked able leaders during the rest of the war and finally surrendered.
The crisis is visible also in the subjects depicted in the sculptures made after 404 B.C.. Look the three works by Praxiteles and answer the questions after you have written the title of every statue under the pictures.

What are they doing? (Read the documents that you will find on the next page, they will help you with the answers)

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Do you think that these types of iconographies are different from what the Greeks represented during the 5th century? What can you see that is new in these statues? Explain the reasons for your answers.

The Apollo Sauroctonus (Lizard Slayer), dating from about 350-340 BC, was one of the finest works by the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. While it is faithful to the classical tradition, the subject is innovative and the style bold. Apollo is depicted as an adolescent, about to catch a lizard climbing up a tree trunk. The group was regularly copied by Roman sculptors.
It is generally held to be the finest Roman copy of the Apollo Sauroctonus (“lizard slayer” in Greek), a bronze work which Pliny the Elder attributes to the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles in his Natural History (34.69-70). The original, now lost, is thought to have dated from the middle of the 4th century BC. Apollo is depicted as a youth, totally absorbed in his childish game, hunting a lizard. The youthful god, his gaze vacant, is nonchalantly leaning against a tree trunk, preparing to grab the lizard climbing up it with his left hand and strike it with an arrow held in his right hand.

2.

Around 330 BC, a Greek sculptor named Praxiteles was commissioned to create a sculpture of the goddess Aphrodite by the island of Kos. He responded, so the Roman writer Pliny tells us, by creating two statues: one fully clothed and another in which Aphrodite was naked.
The islanders of Kos reacted with horror to the naked statue and demanded the clothed version. Hearing that a statue of Aphrodite by the great sculptor might be going cheap, the nearby city of Knidos purchased this naked statue and the Aphrodite of Knidos (pictured above), as she became known, was installed in Knidos’ sanctuary to the goddess.
So, why had the people of Kos been so horrified at the prospect of a statue of a naked Aphrodite, who was, after all, the goddess of love and sex? The answer lay with the sculptural conventions of the day – and in turn the social mores of Greek society – which did not allow women, let alone goddesses, to be shown naked in sculpture. Men had been naked in Greek sculpture for over 350 years, but Praxiteles’ Aphrodite was the first full-sized naked female sculpture in Greek history, for this reason it gathered a slavish following of admirers in antiquity.Aphrodite of Knidos is holding a piece of drapery over a vase. Nude Aphrodite stands with a sleight weight shift in her legs, as evidenced by the bending of her left knee. While her right hand covers her genital area, her left hand holds a thoroughly wrinkled piece of drapery hanging over a vase (the vase contained the water for the bath). Weight shift is also observed in the curve of Aphrodite’s hips and neck, and her hair is depicted in a way resembling real human hair, and her face is more specific than generalized.

3.

There is a clear development from the “Critius Boy” of the 5th century, whose leg is bent while his torso remains erect, to the completely relaxed 4th-century “ Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus” by Praxiteles. The rhythmic ease of the chiasmus pose vastly enlarged the expressive possibilities of figure sculpture.

4.

The statue Hermes Carrying the Infant Dionysus is dated to 343 BC and is made from Parian marble. It is the only original work of Praxiteles, that has survived and it was found at Olympia, intact on his base, several meters under the ground. Its height is 2.10 m. The sculpture represents Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, holding the small Dionysos, who tries to take something from his hand, probably a grape. It seems that Hermes is playing with his little brother. The unrivaled art of Praxiteles, in taking off the hardness of the marble, making it the same with the look of the flesh, is owed in his great skill, in the use of the light and shadow. Praxiteles in order to give life in the statue, purposefully does not keep the symmetry. If one looks the face from the left, is sorrowful, from the right is smiling and when you see it from the front is calm.